The dispute between FC Barcelona and former BVB professional Ousmane Dembélé about a failed contract extension is coming to a head and slowly degenerating into a mud fight.
After the Spanish club initially announced the separation from the winger, the 24-year-old Frenchman accused the Catalans of “blackmail”.
He would “no longer bow to blackmail,” he wrote on social networks. For four years he endured “gossip” and “lies”, but that’s the end of it now.
Ousmane Dembélé: I’m still under contract
The Catalans’ football director Mateu Alemany had previously announced Dembélé’s split with immediate effect in a video published on the club’s website and accused the former Dortmund professional: “It is obvious that the player does not want to stay at Barcelona and himself not committed to Barça’s future project.”.
They only want committed players and hope that a transfer will be possible before January 31st.
In his settlement with the club board, Dembélé energetically rejected the allegations. He “always gave everything”.
He forbids anyone to claim that he is not involved. He is still under contract with Barcelona and is therefore still available to the club.
Xavi: “We have no choice”
Coach Xavi Hernández had warned the day before that Dembélé would have to extend his contract, which expires on June 30th. Otherwise he will not play for Barcelona anymore. “Either he extends or we solve the case with the player leaving. We have no choice, nothing else,” said the coach before the Catalans’ round of 16 match at Athletic Bilbao. Dembélé has already not been selected for this game.
Barça have been in talks with the player and his agent since July 2021, Alemany assured. “We made various offers, trying to find a way for the player to continue with us. And those offers were systematically rejected by his agents.” According to Spanish media reports, the player’s agent, Moussa Sissoko, did not want to accept that Dembélé wanted to pay a significantly lower salary in the future.
Speaking to French radio station “RMC”, Sissoko criticized the club’s behavior: “If Barcelona had wanted to negotiate, they could have tried to sit down and talk to us. But there is no conversation, only threats, not theirs anymore Playing as a team. And that’s forbidden.”
The financially and sportingly ailing club has debts of 1.35 billion euros. Barça are trying to reduce the level of salaries or to comply with the league rules for the total amount of professional salaries by selling or leasing professionals.
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